Desperate Irish citizens and Mexican mothers conned by smuggling ring

Six questioned over child-trafficking as Irish couple’s adopted children taken into custody

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Mexican authorities probing an alleged child-trafficking ring which aimed to pass on babies to Irish couples for adoption have detained six women and taken 10 children into custody.

Photo by AFP

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Three more suspects have been taken into custody in relation to an alleged child-trafficking ring which aimed to pass babies to Irish families for adoptions.

So far, Mexican authorities have detained six women and 10 children. The children, aged between two months and two years, are being held in west Mexico.

On Sunday, it was reported that the 11 Irish couples believed to be involved in this scam have travelled to Guadalajara, as a group, to aid with the investigation.

Lino Gonzalez, a spokesman for the attorney general's office in Guadalajara city, Jalisco state, told AFP “Three people were provisionally detained on Friday and three others were taken in on Monday.”

On Friday the first three suspects were found in a house in Zapopan, near Guadalajara. There were nine babies in the house.

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The smuggling ring were giving mothers $88 per week and providing them with medical care. On Monday, in the town of Tonala, another three were picked up, along with another baby. They told the authorities they had been hired as nannies.

Gonzalez said “The presumption is that they gave the babies to Irish nationals.”

The suspects were being questioned on Tuesday. The officials believe that Irish families and Mexican mothers were being tricked by the smuggling ring.

A consular official from the Irish embassy in Mexico has traveled to Guadalajara to meet the Irish national involved.

Local state attorney Tomas Coronado told the Sunday Independent “There’ll be a full investigation into this matter and we will prosecute whoever’s committed these illegal acts. We have identified 11 Irish couples and are about to take statements from them.

“Some of them had the babies we’ve rescued with them, because they were told that living with them was part of the process they needed to go through for adoption.”

The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade released a statement which reads “Prospective adoptive parents have been advised by the Adoption Authority of Ireland not to enter into any private arrangements with individuals or private agencies in order to effect an adoption in Mexico.”

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